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Unguided Missiles: How America Buys Its Weapons by Fen Hampson; Affording Defense by Jacques S. Gansler Review by: Gregory F. Treverton Foreign Affairs, Vol. 68, No. 4 (Fall, 1989), p. 199 Published by: Council on Foreign Relations Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20044126 . Accessed: 14/06/2014 19:06 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Council on Foreign Relations is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Foreign Affairs. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 195.34.78.245 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 19:06:54 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Unguided Missiles: How America Buys Its Weaponsby Fen Hampson;Affording Defenseby Jacques S. Gansler

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Page 1: Unguided Missiles: How America Buys Its Weaponsby Fen Hampson;Affording Defenseby Jacques S. Gansler

Unguided Missiles: How America Buys Its Weapons by Fen Hampson; Affording Defense byJacques S. GanslerReview by: Gregory F. TrevertonForeign Affairs, Vol. 68, No. 4 (Fall, 1989), p. 199Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20044126 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 19:06

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Council on Foreign Relations is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to ForeignAffairs.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.34.78.245 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 19:06:54 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Unguided Missiles: How America Buys Its Weaponsby Fen Hampson;Affording Defenseby Jacques S. Gansler

RECENT BOOKS 199

NATO IN THE 1990s. Edited by Stanley R. Sloan. Washington: Perga

mon-Brassey's, 1989, 347 pp. $30.00. A North Atlantic Assembly Publi

cation.

In a few scant years the United States overturned George Washington's advice and the presumption of its history by entering what turned out to

be a permanent alliance in Europe. Historians still argue, but at this distance NATO looks like a masterful act of statecraft, the right risk-averse choice even if it played some part in confirming Stalin's hostility and the division of Europe. The story has been told before, but Cook, a distinguished foreign correspondent, helps us think about whether existing arrangements are still the right choice. The chapters in the Sloan volume were background to a report of the North Atlantic Assembly, the group of NATO parlia

mentarians. There is no finer set of authors; they cover the range from defense burden to nuclear weapons to out-of-area issues, so called. Yet the

theme of the assembly report?increasing NATO's European "pillar" so as to keep America fully engaged, even if deficits impel it to withdraw some

troops?seems like yesterday's issue, and so is a reminder how fast events are moving in an area where change used to be glacial.

ASSIGNMENT PENTAGON: THE INSIDER'S GUIDE TO THE PO TOMAC PUZZLE PALACE. By Maj. Gen. Perry M. Smith, USAF (Ret.).

Washington: Pergamon-Brassey's, 1989, 271 pp. $25.00 (paper, $15.95). POAC, the "Tank"?if you want to know more about these Pentagon

institutions, this book is for you. Readably written by a retired Air Force

general with a wealth of experience in the Pentagon hallways and folkways, the book is primarily nuts and bolts?complete with maps and a nine-page glossary of Pentagonese?but it also gives a flavor of how the Goldwater Nichols reorganization affects the work of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

UNGUIDED MISSILES: HOW AMERICA BUYS ITS WEAPONS. By Fen Hampson. New York: Norton, 1989, 370 pp. $19.95. AFFORDING DEFENSE. By Jacques S. Gansler. Cambridge: MIT Press,

1989,415 pp. $24.95. "A biography

... of the lives of weapons" that "outlive their political sponsors (and critics)," ranging from the B-l bomber to the M-l tank, is how Hampson, a Canadian and a subtle observer of American politics, describes his book. He lays out the weapons acquisition cycle in clean prose, and he dissects the politics of procurement. "Efficiency is not one of

democracy's virtues," Hampson writes, and he argues that lengthy acquisi tion cycles weaken political accountability. Gansler's canvas is broader and his approach more scholarly. He is one of America's foremost students of defense acquisition, the author of The Defense Industry, and his conclusions

overlap with Hampson's. Neither author's remedies are new?shorten lead times for weapons while lengthening and making more directly competitive the budgeting process?but Hampson's conclusions emerge strongly from

his "biographies," and his emphasis on Congress is apt. Gansler's recom mendations illustrate just how deep the political change will have to be; his case for removing "Congress's detailed regulation of the procurement process" is strong but is not the way this season's political winds are blowing.

This content downloaded from 195.34.78.245 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 19:06:54 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions